Monitoring and evaluating a knowledge management initiative: using the EthnoCorder mobile application to collect and use field data

EthnoCorder is a mobile application that records and organizes videos, photos, and audio files and can be used as part of a survey. EthnoCorder was first used to support a food security project in Burundi in 2010 and is currently being considered as a tool to enhance results monitoring by UNICEF in Nepal. After a brief description of EthnoCorder, this article presents how the usefulness and impact of EthnoCorder has been continuously monitored and evaluated. Approaches have included regular piloting and user testing, survey questions, and listening to informal feedback from beneficiaries, donors and partner organizations. The article also argues that the impact of EthnoCorder speaks through its effect on the design of the development programs it supports and by clearly improving the capacity of organizations to collect and analyse field data that can be used for monitoring and evaluation. In the evaluation of the software, along with user and partner feedback, a focus on the fit between individual user, task, and technology has been useful; this process also focuses on how the tool contributes to truly enhanced flows of information among stakeholders in a program.